Aircraft include one or more movable flight control members to permit pilots and/or on-board systems to adjust and control the attitude of the aircraft during flight. Some typical flight control members found on aircraft include, but are not limited to, ailerons on the wings for roll control, elevators on the horizontal tail of the empennage for pitch control, a rudder on the vertical tail of the empennage for yaw control, as well as various other movable control surfaces.
The movement of such flight control members is typically effected by one or more actuators mechanically coupled between a base on the aircraft (e.g., a wing spar) and the flight control member. In cases where a given flight control member is considered flutter critical, a regulatory authorities mandate the use of at least two actuators. In some cases, inerter systems are utilized to dampen movement of such flight control members thereby mitigating the criticality of such flutter critical flight control members and permitting the use of only a single actuator.